OregonSteve
Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2019
- Posts
- 6
Hello RVers-
My Wife and I purchased a 1995 Terry 24 foot fifth-wheel from the Oregon Coast in January 2019. I knew it would need serious restoration.
Upon towing it home to the Willamette Valley where I live I began assessing it. We discovered soon that it was incredibly water damaged with standing water under the floors, under the overhand in front, soaked fiberglass in the walls and some completely rotted roofing. Much of the wooden frame was mush. In a practical sense beyond any reasonable repair. At, least 50% of the wood framing rotted to the point of crumbling in your hand.
So, my wife and I gutted the front 6 feet and the rear eight feet of the coach and began to reconstruct the wood. It took five months of every weekend with the whole rig under a tarp in the Oregon winter and spring to renovate into a solid structure. It had to be supported to keep its basic shape because so much framing had to be removed it would otherwise collapse on itself.
The thing with a trailer is that the construction has to be rabbitted and overlapped so the structure does not break apart as it travels down the road. And the internal cabinets and other inside structures also reinforce the coach?s structure so it is strong enough to take the shaking and bumping of road travel.
I am mending the roof wood by cutting the EPDM and splicing new EPDM with acrylic adhesives and overlaying with Eternabond with Decor Lapping compound. The roof has intermittent rot I am replacing. Mending EPDM is tricky but I am doing it anyway. I am amazed at Eternabond tape. Soon I will clean the existing old EPDM and coat it with Dicor acrylic rubber roof. In a couple of years I might go to the effort of completely reroofing?it is all too much to do at once.
I could have build a house with a similar amount of labor as this renovation. The only reason I did not junk this trailer was I like to fix the ?unfixable?, I have the tools, I have experience doing vehicle frame-up restorations and running gear/engine swaps on at least a dozen 4x4s. I have built shops, and sheds and utility trailers and done a lot of home remodeling And how do you get rid of 4500 pounds of junk sitting in your driveway?? I used a lot of 2x2s, Epoxy, polyester resin, plywood, carpenter glue, staples, screws, fiberglass insulation and cussed a lot. Normally a project like this is not practical nor worth the effort. On a certain level it is fun however. My tow vehicle is a 1997 Ford F250 4x4 with an EFI 460 CI engine. Husky fifth-wheel single tooth hitch.
My Wife and I purchased a 1995 Terry 24 foot fifth-wheel from the Oregon Coast in January 2019. I knew it would need serious restoration.
Upon towing it home to the Willamette Valley where I live I began assessing it. We discovered soon that it was incredibly water damaged with standing water under the floors, under the overhand in front, soaked fiberglass in the walls and some completely rotted roofing. Much of the wooden frame was mush. In a practical sense beyond any reasonable repair. At, least 50% of the wood framing rotted to the point of crumbling in your hand.
So, my wife and I gutted the front 6 feet and the rear eight feet of the coach and began to reconstruct the wood. It took five months of every weekend with the whole rig under a tarp in the Oregon winter and spring to renovate into a solid structure. It had to be supported to keep its basic shape because so much framing had to be removed it would otherwise collapse on itself.
The thing with a trailer is that the construction has to be rabbitted and overlapped so the structure does not break apart as it travels down the road. And the internal cabinets and other inside structures also reinforce the coach?s structure so it is strong enough to take the shaking and bumping of road travel.
I am mending the roof wood by cutting the EPDM and splicing new EPDM with acrylic adhesives and overlaying with Eternabond with Decor Lapping compound. The roof has intermittent rot I am replacing. Mending EPDM is tricky but I am doing it anyway. I am amazed at Eternabond tape. Soon I will clean the existing old EPDM and coat it with Dicor acrylic rubber roof. In a couple of years I might go to the effort of completely reroofing?it is all too much to do at once.
I could have build a house with a similar amount of labor as this renovation. The only reason I did not junk this trailer was I like to fix the ?unfixable?, I have the tools, I have experience doing vehicle frame-up restorations and running gear/engine swaps on at least a dozen 4x4s. I have built shops, and sheds and utility trailers and done a lot of home remodeling And how do you get rid of 4500 pounds of junk sitting in your driveway?? I used a lot of 2x2s, Epoxy, polyester resin, plywood, carpenter glue, staples, screws, fiberglass insulation and cussed a lot. Normally a project like this is not practical nor worth the effort. On a certain level it is fun however. My tow vehicle is a 1997 Ford F250 4x4 with an EFI 460 CI engine. Husky fifth-wheel single tooth hitch.
